Wet winter to be followed by drier spring according to BoM

While the region has been battered with wild weather throughout the past three months, including snow in some parts, it has also experienced some much needed rain, with June’s rainfall accounting for more than a quarter of the year’s total.

While it may have felt like a bitterly cold winter, June and July recorded above average maximum mean temperatures, with June’s monthly mean maximum of 13.6 degrees the highest since 2014 and July’s average of 13.5° the highest in 17 years — ranking in the 95th percentile overall, while August’s average of 13.3° fell just short of its monthly mean of 13.9°, according to the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM).

The mercury dipped to -1.4° on June 14 to make it the lowest minimum temperature recorded throughout winter and on August 9 the mercury rose to just 9.5° to make it the lowest maximum temperature throughout the three months.

During the winter months more than 160 millimetres of rain fell in the region — over 35 mm than had been recorded throughout the five months prior.

The wettest month was June, which recorded 74.6 mm — the highest total since 2014, more than double its 2018 total of 29.2 mm and more than 13 times the amount that was recored in June 2017 (5.4 mm).

For more on this story see Page 2 of The Advertiser, Friday, September 6